NEW DELHI: The government on Monday raised the minimum price to buy six rabi crops, including wheat, by as much as six percent as it sought to send a strong message to farmers about the continuation of the MSP-based procurement system.
The MSP (Minimum support price) of wheat, the biggest harvest of the rabi season, has risen by Rs 50 to Rs 1,975 per quintal, Minister of Agriculture Narendra Singh Tomar said in Lok Sabha.
In addition, the minimum sale prices of lentils (masoor), gram, barley, safflower and mustard / rape have been increased.
The move came a day after Parliament passed two agricultural sector reform bills that opposition parties like Congress and the TMC bitterly opposed, as well as from within the ruling NDA alliance for fear of that the new legislation could virtually end MSP-based acquisitions by the government. government.
Farmer groups in Punjab, Haryana and some other states are also protesting the two bills: the Trade in Agricultural Products and Trade (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill of 2020 and the Agricultural Price and Services Guarantee Agreement. for Farmers (Empowerment and Protection). 2020 – have been approved by Parliament.
Tomar said MSPs for six rabi crops were approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, a move aimed at encouraging farmers ahead of planting operations for rabi crops. winter.
In announcing the MSP increase for the six rabi crops for the 2020-21 crop year (July-June) and the 2021-22 marketing season, Tomar said that the gram MSP has been increased by Rs 225 to Rs 5,100 per quintal.
The MSP of barley has increased by Rs 75 to Rs 1,600 per quintal. The MSP for lentils has increased by Rs 300 to Rs 5,100 per quintal.
The retail price of mustard / rapeseed has risen by Rs 225 to Rs 4,650 per quintal, while that of saffron has risen by Rs 112 to Rs 5,327 per quintal.
Tomar said the government has maintained that the MSP mechanism will continue and the approval of a new support price before the rabbi season attests to this fact against false propaganda spread by opposition parties.
Some congressional MPs left the House after Tomar made the MSP announcement.
Citing various data, Tomar said that acquisitions have been significantly higher under this government in the last six years compared to the UPA regime.
Tomar said 7 million rupees have been paid to farmers like MSP in the past six years, which is almost double that of the UPA government.
The minister said that the MSP and APMC mechanisms, as well as the government’s purchase of crops at MSP rates, will continue. He added that farmers would also be free to sell mandi outside of APMC.
Later, in a series of tweets, Tomar said that the MSP of wheat is 106% more than the cost of production. In the case of gram and lentils, MSP is 78% higher than the cost of production. The support price for barley is 65 percent higher than the cost of production.
The MSP of mustard is 93% higher than the cost of production, while the support price of safflower is 50% higher than the cost of production.
Meanwhile, on Monday the government set the food grain production target at a record 301 million tonnes for the 2020-21 crop season, almost 1.5 percent higher than the previous year’s output, thanks to good monsoon rains and increased acreage in the kharif season.
The wheat production target has been set at 108 million tonnes for 2020-21, compared with 107.59 million tonnes the previous year.
After the minister made the announcement, Congressional Leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who was present in the House, said that Congress had established the structure of agricultural mandi but that the government was dismantling it.
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